to 40 feet above the sea, but it is surrounded by hills,— on the east by Monte Ardizio, on the west by Monte Accio or San Bartolo, which derives one of its names from the Roman dramatist L. Attius, born and buried on the spot. The city walls, which were strengthened by bastions and moat and made a circuit of about a mile, were in 1830 transformed into a public promenade. Besides the ancient cathedral of the Annunciation (restored since 1860) the more conspicuous buildings are the prefecture (a palace originally erected by the Sforza, and restored by Francesco Maria della Rovere), the seminary, the Rossini theatre (opened in 1818), the fortress or Rocca Costanzia (built by Costanzo Sforza in 1474), the harbour-fort (due to Napoleon I.), and the large lunatic asylum. Rossini, who was a native of Pesaro, left all his fortune to found a musical lyceum in the city, and his statue by Marochetti (1864) stands near the railway station. The Olivieri library (established by the antiquary of that name, author of Marmora Pisaurensia, &c.) contains about 14,000 volumes, MSS. of Tasso’s, &c., various antiquities, and a fine collection of majolica from the old Urbino manufactory. Among the industries of Pesaro are the growing, spinning, and weaving of silk, tanning, iron-founding, and the manufacture of glass and pottery. The harbour is of no great importance, and the aggregate burden of the 437 vessels entering or clearing in 1883 was less than 12,000 tons. The population of the city and port in 1870 was 11,952 and in 1880 12,913; that of the commune 19,691 and 20,909 in the same years.

The ancient Pisaurum in the territory of the Galli Senones became a Roman colony in 184 b.c. and soon grew to be a flourishing town. It was recruited with a body of military colonists by Mark Antony, and after the disastrous earthquake of 31 b.c. received another accession from Augustus and took the title Colonia Julia Felix. Destroyed by Vitiges the Goth, it was restored and strengthened by Belisarius, and afterwards along with Ancona, Fano, Sinigaglia, and Rimini formed the Pentapolis Maritima. In the course of the 13th century Pesaro was sometimes under the government of the popes, sometimes under that of the emperors; but the Malatesta family, which first took root in the city about 1285, gradually became the real masters of the place. In 1445 they sold their rights to Francesco Sforza; and in 1512, through the influence of Julius II., the Sforza were supplanted by his nephew Francesco Maria, duke of Urbino. Leo X. took the city away from Francesco and gave it to Lorenzo de’ Medici; but on Lorenzo’s death Francesco was restored and Pesaro became the ordinary residence of the dukes of Urbino till the death of Francesco Maria II. in 1631, when it reverted to the States of the Church. It has formed part of the present kingdom of Italy since 1860. Terenzio Mamiani della Rovere, poet and statesman, was born at Pesaro in 1800.